A five-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after she was swallowed by an underwater manhole while playing in the street.
On February 27, the young girl had been splashing in flood waters with friends when she fell into the hole in Fortaleza, Brazil, after heavy rain.
The girl had been running through the floods while her friend swam alongside her – but suddenly sank into the water.
A whirlpool appeared to suck in the young girl, sparking panic from another woman and man who were nearby.
The five-year-old girl was later found alive by locals on a plot of land near a stream just 100 feet away.
Her father, who was not named, said: ‘My daughter is fine, it was a scare. She is strong and well, thanks to God, and I can only be grateful.’
The fire department warned people to take greater care when walking on the street during floods.
A man previously died in front of his friends after the pool he was in drained in seconds when a sinkhole opened underneath.
The victim was dragged down with the water when it fell into the chasm underneath in Karmei Yosef, Israel, in 2022.
Another man narrowly escaped and needed treatment from paramedics at the scene for injuries to his lower body.
Footage from the scene showed swimmers – who were attending a private work party – clinging to the sides of the pool as the sinkhole swallowed everything, including inflatables.
A woman who saw the hole start to appear tried to get her friends to leave the pool. But it was too late.
She told Ynet news site: ‘Seconds later, the ground just dropped… I watched two people just disappear.’
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